During her four years at Summerville High School, Tracy Egger Biglin enjoyed being a student-athlete. She describes these years as “some of the most defining and formative years of my life.” She also said, “As I watch my own children journey through high school, I reflect on the incredible gift that Summerville was to me. I learned about the grief of death, the joy of life, the importance of being heard and seen and the fulfilling experience of completing a job wholeheartedly. Having grieved the loss of Bobbi Brennan, Eli Carter, Clayton Forester and my precious grandmother, Ellen Egger in my teenage years, I was acutely aware of the transient nature of life and the finite amount of time that each one of us receives. This reasoning caused me to pack as much as I could into every moment that I had been given and to choose to invest in as many other lives as possible along the way. After all, relationships are truly the most important gift that we are given.” And that is exactly what she did.
In the classroom, Tracy combined a top notch work ethic with thorough preparation which enhanced her academic success; graduating as co-valedictorian. While at Summerville, she also excelled as an athlete: 4 years in volleyball (3 varsity), 4 years in basketball (3 varsity) and 3 years in softball (1 varsity). Not only was Tracy a committed leader of her athletic teams, she also received many honors and awards. In addition to her academic and athletic successes Tracy took on a leadership role in many other activities on campus. Tracy was very involved in the ASB leadership program holding a class officer position in each of her first three years and holding the office of ASB president as a senior. She was a natural leader who also willingly shared her positive attitude with everyone she came in contact with. She cared deeply for those around her, always thinking of others before herself. She was, and still is, a wonderful person who spent countless hours dedicated to her teammates, our school and our extended community. Tracy worked at building relationships with a kind and caring manner, willingly giving herself in a way that always benefited others.
After graduating from Summerville HS in 1991, Tracy received some phenomenal scholarships, one of which was a 4 year scholarship from the Elks Club, as well as many others from the school and sports communities, which allowed her to attend Pepperdine University, in Malibu, California. It was there that she decided she wanted to make a difference in the lives of children, in the same way that her life had been molded by the teachers and coaches who had invested in her along the way. She remembered that “teachers who impacted me most were those who extended themselves beyond the four walls of the classroom and ‘saw’ me beyond the dutiful performer that I portrayed. I wanted to ‘see’ kids and affirm their value in life. I wanted to invest in students in the same way which my teachers at Summerville had poured into my life. I wanted to pay it forward as they had.” Tracy graduated with a Liberal Arts degree and teaching credential (Magna Cum Laude) from Pepperdine in April, 1995. She earned her Masters of Arts in Education in 2000 from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles CA.
She married her husband, Brian Biglin, an architect, in August 1995 and began her teaching career. She worked tirelessly for the next 6 years teaching Middle School and ultimately becoming
the Math Department Head, leading Family Math Nights and training other teachers. “It was exhausting and highly rewarding, simultaneously” she admitted. She loved her work but when she and her husband decided to have children, they decided that the family investment was worth the cost and Tracy left teaching to raise their kids. They also decided to open their architectural firm, Biglin Architectural Group in 2000. Over the course of the next 15 years she and Brian grew a business, a family and Tracy developed a new philosophy of education. While Tracy acted as the Office Manager for the business, they grew their family to include four children: Shane, Jocelyn, Bryce and Boaz. Tracy maintained her interest in education and discovered an appreciation for the Classical Model and chose to educate their children congruently. It was during this hectic time that she realized that “raising kids outside of the tight family that she had been surrounded by in Tuolumne was quite the challenge.” But through their church, they found a like-minded community which became an extended family over time. Tracy went back to work as a high school Algebra and Geometry teacher for a few years, but ultimately decided that it was not the best plan for the Biglins.
During the last several years, Tracy has come to understand that she loved teaching because it was the vehicle into the lives of teenagers. “Surprisingly, it was not the hours devoted to lesson plans, research, teaching techniques, assessments or grading that powered my love for teaching. It was the fact that teaching provided me a voice, through repetition and consistency, to speak into the lives of students during what might be the most unstable time of their lives.” This revelation lead her to begin volunteering with a nonprofit, James Storeho se in Newbury Park, CA, which serves the foster care families who live in her community. She has just become the Organizational Leader for the Open Table program which works with the youth who are transitioning out of foster care and into independent living. Through this program, volunteers choose to invest their social and relational capital into the lives of youth who are ready to launch into their adult lives. When asked about it Tracy said, “My training through the Open Table program has opened my eyes to a very tangible and real way to reach out to the youth around me and make a difference. I was very purposeful and calculated in investing into the lives of my own children, and I reap the rewards daily for making those choices. I am excited to see how a similar calculated investment into the lives of the youth in my area will reap rewards that will be felt in the generations to come.”
Beginning from an early age, Tracy Egger Biglin has set her sights high and has accomplished many great things. But she admits that her life has never been about those things and says “they seem frivolous and unimportant.” What is important is her passion for helping others and as a result she been a blessing to more people than she realizes. “For we focus not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporal, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18)
From her days at Summerville High until now, Tracy has been inspired to succeed in those things which are most important in life. She has lived her life as a journey to “see” others and invest in people, an eternal investment. Tracy is a delightful person and a joy to know who is humble and yet confident that she can make a difference in the lives of others.